Citrus Kitchen RESTAURANT

When I get stumped on places to try for lunch, I turn to the Internet. With a few places on my list to check out, I settled on a new place that opened in April called Citrus Kitchen Restaurant in Rancho Cucamonga.

Citrus Kitchen Restaurant is located in a small strip mall called Chaffey Plaza, located at the corner of Lemon and Haven avenues. The dining area is on the small side with modest decor, just a few small tables, a bar-height counter with stools facing the front window and one bistro table on the sidewalk.

Citrus Kitchen’s menu offers many fresh and healthy choices in snack size, which include a choice of one side, or meal size with choice of two sides, ranging from $6.99 to $13.49.

Menu choices include items such as Santa Maria tri-tip, citrus or Cajun grilled salmon and citrus tofu strips. There are also 16 choices of sauces such as parsley chimichurri, spiced tomato tikka, garlic toum and hot molcajete sauce to name a few. Side choices include kale and quinoa, baked butternut squash, vegan black beans and several more. I checked out a few customers’ meals before I ordered and it all looked terrific.

I was pretty hungry the day I visited, so ordered meal size of Adobo grilled chicken with tomato pesto sauce and a side of mac and cheese with sweet potato tater tots for $9.99.

Lunch was brought to my table, served on a simple tray, and I was surprised at the portion. It was much bigger than I expected, so maybe next time I’ll have to opt for the snack size.

The serving of mac and cheese was rich, creamy and there was plenty of it. The adobo grilled chicken was so moist and tender I had no problem cutting it with my plastic fork and knife. I dipped each bite of chicken in the tomato pesto sauce, but it really was perfect on its own.

The sweet potato tater tots were awesome, too. They were slightly toasted, sweet and delicious. No ketchup required.

Every bite of lunch was finished in a matter of minutes. In my book Citrus Kitchen Restaurant deserves a visit. The restaurant’s motto is “Healthy.Fast.Fresh” — and I totally agree.